Lexington, KY - There was a time, decades ago, when a person good with their hands and knowledgeable about tools could land a job on an auto assembly line and manage pretty well. But those days are as dead as a V-8 Edsel with big tail fins.
Today, you've got to have smarts and be a critical thinker to make it in a modern, complex automotive plant. To land more of those coveted employees, the Toyota plant in Georgetown has teamed up with Bluegrass Community and Technical College to prepare the next crop of nimble, adaptable auto workers.
When Toyota opened its plant in 1988, it hired thousands of people, many of whom have hit the 22-year mark and are contemplating retirement. Toyota tracked the trend and recognized a big employment dip was coming, when many would leave at once. Out the plant gate would walk a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience.
"That doesn't happen here that often in manufacturing, because many companies are established, and it's rare to lose a whole class of employees to retirement at one time," said Mark Manuel, vice president for workforce and institutional development at BCTC.
To head off the problem, Toyota has recruited students to attend BCTC classes two days a week on site at Toyota and then go to work three more days inside the plant.
"They'll work almost full time and build experience on the line and gain practical knowledge," said Manuel. "They're getting scholarships to pay for everything, like tuition and books. Plus they're earning money while they're there."
BCTC has established, with Toyota's backing, a model of what a community college automotive maintenance training center should look like.
"Toyota houses part of the community college, a satellite campus, and we support BCTC with curriculum development to help them understand Toyota's needs so they can support us with a pipeline of people," explained Caren Caton, assistant general manager at Toyota's North American Production Support Center. Students will learn what Caton calls the fundamental skills of maintenance.
"The need is multifaceted. We want a flow of young people as we experience attrition but also want continuous training for our current employees. We practice multi-skilled maintenance, so no one practices just one trade," she explained. "If you're an electrician, you're also expected to know hydraulics, pneumatics, fabrication and welding. You don't usually hire someone with all of those skills, so we have to train people while they're employed."
"They're looking for problem-solving, troubleshooting and team skills, someone who can think critically," Manuel said. "You can have someone who's mechanically or electrically inclined, but finding someone who can figure out what's wrong on the line is harder."
Knowing PLCs (programmable logic controllers), which are computers that run industrial equipment, is also part of the training, Manuel added.
The profile of the BCTC/Toyota student varies. BCTC prepares high school graduates to work at Toyota, or at any auto plant for that matter, but it also trains children of Toyota employees who want to follow Mom or Dad into the industry. In addition, many current Toyota employees seek additional skill sets or want to shift their career into another area.
Manuel sees many advantages in these student internships.
"Toyota will have seen the students work, so it will know if they're good teammates. And they'll have a two-year degree in industrial maintenance involving electrical and mechanical skills and more," Manuel said.
Of course, there's no guarantee that a BCTC student will land a permanent job at Toyota, but the skills learned can be transferred.
"If Toyota can't use them, then they'll be snapped up pretty quickly by other manufacturers in the area, like 3M in Cynthiana, Square D or Trane," Manuel emphasized.
Many educators admit that a four-year college degree may not be right for every high school grad. Two-year specialty programs can be useful too.
"It can make for a very satisfying career for someone," Caton said, "but it's hard to get that message out to middle schools and high schools."
Manuel doesn't think many parents urge their kids to go into manufacturing. Some believe that it's a dying industry, but he disagrees.
"There's a pent up demand for new cars now," Manuel said. "Eventually that's going to break loose and there will be a lot of automobiles built and sold by somebody."
In a rare example of competitive cooperation, major automotive manufacturers are working together in a program called the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative. Partners include Toyota, GM, Ford and others.
"AMTEC is a collaboration of manufacturers and community colleges in about a dozen states. They've joined forces to create a common maintenance training curriculum that can be delivered across the nation," said Caton. "It's looking at the needs of the modern factory and closing the gap between what customers need and what colleges provide."
In the end, the plan will help develop the next generation of auto workers that the entire industry seems to desperately need.